Saiyuki: Crimson snow
by Lunar Envy999
Summary: A story of a young Youkai female named Hanataro, who remains unaffected by the calamity of Shangrila. She knows she will find answers with the Sanzo party, and tags along with them for their journey to the west.
1. Chapter 1

Saiyuki: Blood red snow

By: LunarEnvy999

Hanataro looked up from her bare feet. There was still nothing but endless snow. A sea of white, powdery flakes. She started walking again, knowing that if she would have to walk for one more day by herself, she would definitely go crazy. She was not cold, but she knew the weather had to be at least twenty degrees below zero. If it was not for her ability to change her body temperature when she found herself to hot or cold, she'd be dead. Frozen solid, forgotten in the dessert of snow. She sighed, knowing that it was inevitable that she would die from hunger, or thirst…

The snow kept landing on her in the form of rain. Hot water dripped all over her. Her crimson hair was now matted to her forehead, and she couldn't see very well through it. For the millionth time, she pushed it out of the way. She had no memory of why she was out here. She did know that she was the only one of her family left.

Vivid images of her past, that not so long ago night where her entire clan had gone mad, killing the humans that they had so successfully co-existed with. The noble's of her clan were unaffected, but they lost their lives fighting off the youkai. She had managed to get away, but was not sure why she still had her sanity.

She walked for hours, and finally stopped, dropping to her knees. A warm puddle of water gathered around her knees. She started crying, and moaning, wanting to go back to her parents, to her family, to her home. "WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS, GOD?" she moaned and the collapsed. Her head was now in water. She wished she could drown in the small puddle around her body.

Hanataro woke up in a daze. She was in a warm bed, not a warm puddle. A man with brown hair noticed she was up. He turned, and smiled a warm, friendly smile. Across from him was a man with crimson hair, like hers. But unlike her his eyes were also a deep crimson. She thought of him as pretty, and handsome.

"I see you're finally awake. You gave us all a good scare." The man with brown hair said in a soft voice. Hanataro rose slowly. She looked at the foot of her bed, and saw a small, white dragon asleep at her feet.

"Hey sweetie. Got a name? A name?" the man with crimson hair procrastinated.

"It's uh…Chi Hanataro…" she stuttered, dumbfounded by the intense beauty of the two men smiling at her.

"We have similar names. I'm Cho Hakkai." Hakkai said smiling at her.

"Sha Gojyo." The man with crimson hair said, proudly, and then added, "It's nice to meet such a pretty girl with such a pretty name." This made Hanataro blush and she quickly looked away, embarrassed. "Aww, she's blushing…" Gojyo said, laughing.

"Now, now, she is not in any condition to get made fun of, Gojyo." Hakkai said, smiling at her. Hanataro blushed more, and then heard her stomach growl. "Are you hungry?" Hakkai asked, concerned.

"Yes...I am very hungry, but…I don't want to impose." Hanataro stated, looking back at the sleeping dragon at her feet.

"You aren't imposing babe, trust me." Gojyo said, rising to his feet, abandoning the card game he and Hakkai were playing. He ambled to her, smiling and sat next to her. She looked at him, meeting his eyes for only a second, and then looked away.

"Behave, Gojyo. Hanataro, do you mind waiting for our friends to get back with the food?" Hakkai asked, shifting his position in his seat. She nodded, and just then, the door opened, and a blonde haired priest walked in with a light brown haired boy.

"Oh, mighty Sanzo, please tell me you come with cigarettes." Gojyo said to the blonde man.

"Get bent." Sanzo retorted as the brown haired boy set down the two grocery bags he was holding. Sanzo held a small one and took out a pack of cigarettes and threw the bag at Gojyo.

"Thank you." Gojyo said lovingly. Suddenly, the brown haired boy was behind Hanataro. She jumped.

"You're awake! That's good, I was getting worried! I hoped you were ok! Are you ok?" he queried.

"Get the hell away from her, you stupid chimp." Gojyo demanded.

"You aint the boss of me, you stupid kappa!" the boy shot back.

"Goku, she's still recovering. We don't want to make her worse, do we?" Hakkai asked, smiling. Goku frowned. "But you can get her something to eat." Hakkai said, smiling.

"Oh yeah," Goku started, running to the grocery bags. "I bought this for me and her to share!" He pulled out two shiskabobs with sushi and meat and peppers on it. He handed one to her and then savigagly started ripping apart his. She looked at it and started eating, piece by piece, gaining speed each time when going back for more. Goku, unsatisfied when he finished his, went back to the bags to find more. Once Hanataro finished, Sanzo spoke for the first time to her.

"Where are you from?" He asked her, not looking at her, but rather reading a news paper.

She timidly answered, "From northern Shangrila."

"Why were you out there in the snow, by yourself?"

"I don't know…I have no more family, because they're all dead, or they went mad…but that's all I know…I don't know how I ended up in that desolate place…"

"Why haven't you gone mad?" Sanzo put down his paper and looked at her.

"I don't know, I-." Suddenly, the window closest to Hanataro shattered, and Gojyo picked her up, and she scooped the little dragon up with her. Three men climbed in the room, all laughing.

"We found you…SANZO PARTY!"


	2. Chapter 2

Crimson Snow

Crimson Snow

Chapter 2

Everything went so fast after that. Goku and Gojyo had summoned weapons out of thin air! And they were so quick! They jumped on the first Youkai they saw and went crazy. Gojyo was slicing through them with his crescent blade at the end of his rod, and Goku…Goku was just hitting them over and over with his. He had no blade on the end of it, but he managed just fine. Hanataro didn't realize it, but she had been shaking. Hakkai put a hand on her shoulder and smiled.

"Don't worry. They can't get to you." Hanataro gave a weak smile back, and then turned to Sanzo. He was just sitting there; reading his newspaper like nothing was going on! Did this sort of thing always happen to them? Suddenly, a man had somehow slipped through Goku and Gojyo and jumped into there room.

"I'll kill you!" He shouted, heading right towards Sanzo. Without a glance, Sanzo quickly pointed a little handgun at the demon and shot. Hanataro had doubts that it would really do anything, but somehow, that teensy weensy thing just knocked the living daylights out of the demon, and he fell on the ground, dead. Even though Sanzo didn't look, he had got him right through the heart.

"Oh…I feel sorry for whoever has to clean up this room. There's glass everywhere." Hakkai said with a worried expression. How many Youkai have these men slain? Hanataro was so surprised…they were all so handsome; she wouldn't have guessed they were fighters. "Are you okay, dear?"

"Yeah..I just..Yeah." Hanataro simply said. Hakkai smiled. Goku and Gojyo jumped back into the room.

"Well that was one hell of a warm up. Why can't Kougaiji send some real competition?" Gojyo smiled at Hanataro. Something was telling her he was just trying to show off.

"Awe man, now I'm even more hungry. Why do we always, always have to get attacked?!" Goku whined.

"Still, its very unusual for them to attack us in town like this…" Someone knocking at the door interrupted Hakkai. "I'll get it."

When Hakkai opened the door, crowds of people were lined up at the end of it. "Oh..Can I help you?"

"You know it was awfully nice of those people to give us so much food!" Goku said, him practically drooling over the Benton boxes and some other food that the villagers had packed for them.

"Yeah, and it was for all of us, you dumb monkey. So stop looking at it like its all yours!" Gojyo ordered.

"It should be all mine, I practically did all the work! You didn't even move!"

"I can't help if I'm so bad ass that I don't have to move to kick butt!"

Hanataro smiled somewhat at there argument. Sanzo had decided to leave town, due to them getting a little too much attention for slaying the Youkai that had wreaked havoc on the poor village, and because he didn't give them a chance to repay him, they just gave him a lot of food for their journey. It was a nice gesture, even when all the woman were practically fighting over who would give them what, and in the end, all of them had gave him what they had to offer. And to Hanataros surprise, the little dragon that had once slept by her feet had turned into jeep. And they left. In the dragon jeep. Together.

What the hell was going on?

Hanataro was brought back to reality when Sanzo had smacked both Goku and Gojyo with a paper fan.

"Ouch, dammit, what was that for?" Goku whined.

"Keep talking, and I'll do it again!" Sanzo shouted, and then turned back around to face forward. Gojyo ignored him and then wrapped his arm around Hanataro.

"So…I figured I wouldn't get in as much trouble if I talk to you. So how old are you, sweet heart?" Hanataro blushed and turned away from him.

"I'm nineteen." She said shyly.

"You're a year older than me? No way!" Goku yelled.

"Yes way, that means, keep away from her, monkey. She's mine." Gojyo smiled and kissed Hanataro on the cheek.

"Stop teasing her Gojyo." Hakkai said, looking in the mirror.

"I can't help it. She's just so fun to tease. She's hella red right now!" (Sorry, sorry I had to do that to you, folks…I know that word is horrible,) Gojyo started laughing.

Hanataro felt like she was going to faint.

At nightfall, they had reached another town. It was pretty big; bigger than the village they left. Goku and Gojyo had gone through the Bento boxes at lunchtime, seeing who could eat the most. Hanataro was lucky she had her fill.

"This seems like a pretty deserted place." Hakkai said, driving through the streets slowly. He was right. This place was so empty…and the air was..thick. Hanataro couldn't explain it. It just felt like she was choking. Hakkai stopped at the nearest Inn. The five of them got out, and the jeep transformed back into a dragon. It landed on Hakkais shoulder and chirped. They went in, and no one was at the service desk.

"This is weird." Goku said. Hakkai looked around.

"Were do you suppose they all went?" He asked Sanzo.

"I don't know..But it looks like the all just up and left. Like something was coming. Oh well. We can still stay here for the night and leave in the morning."

Since the Inn was empty, they all had individual rooms for themselves. Before Hanataro went in hers, Gojyo had suggested that, if she got scared, she could sleep with him for the night. Hanataro simply laughed and went inside her room. The bed was made, and the room was neat.

This was just way too spooky.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3Chapter 3

Hanataro awoke with a dry feeling in her mouth. She hadn't fed in _days_. Okay, about three days. However, for her kind, that was a long time. She sighed. No one was around. With the exception of Sanzo and the others of course. No. She couldn't ask to feed on them. It was bad enough that she had impossibly escaped the calamity that happened in Shangri-La. How in the world would she ask to feed off of one of them?

She got out from her bed, her eyes adjusting to the dark room. She felt different, like the atmosphere had changed. But her senses were weak due to lack of sustenance. She shivered a bit. The floor was cold under her bear feet, and even as she shifted the temperature of her body, she still had chills running up and down her body.

And that's when she heard it.

It was like…like a terrible screech. Suddenly, something was behind her. She spun around and was faced by a woman. She had a ghastly look to her; her skin was impossibly pale. The woman ran her cold fingers against Hanataros cheek. Hanataro did not make a sound, and did not move. This woman looked human, but she wasn't. She felt paralyzed as she looked into the woman's green eyes. The woman smiled.

"At last…I found one of you…Vampire…" The woman hissed and then bit Hanataro hard on the neck, causing her to yelp in pain. Suddenly, her door was kicked open.

"Get away from her!" Gojyo shouted. Hanataro felt herself go numb. The woman had released venom into her blood stream.

"Gojyo…" She said weakly.

"Hanataro!" Gojyo turned to the ghostly woman.

"Dumb bitch! What the hell did you do to her?" The woman laughed, backing away towards the wall.

"I simply paralyzed her…you see…my kind loves the taste of vampires…they give us power…the perfect sustenance…lays in this girl. You four can leave in peace…just as long as you leave her with us."

"Like hell we will!" Goku yelled, appearing behind Gojyo. The woman smiled.

"Fine then! You will all be killed!" Suddenly, a bright light illuminated the room, causing Hanataro to close her eyes. When it settled, Hanataro opened them back up and gasped. The room they had once been in was now gone. They were now in some unreal world, where only the floors were visible. Sanzo and Hakkai were there with the three of them as well.

"What the hell is this shit!?" Goku shouted.

"It appears we have been transported to some alternate dimension." Hakkai simply said.

"Very good!" The woman chastised. "You see, this is my world, and you don't stand a chance in here!" Hanataros eyes widened. She had now figured it out. This woman was vampire devourer. A wielder of powerful magic. This woman was indeed…

"A Krusnik…" Hanataro said sadly.

"I see…Centauries of feeding of one of the most powerful Youkai races…would give you this kind of power, huh?" Sanzo asked, cocking his little handgun. The woman smiled.

"Indeed, Sanzo priest…Now that I think about it…There's a little rumor going on about-."

"How feeding off a Sanzo can give you life ever lasting? Don't you already have it?" Sanzo interrupted.

"No…A Sanzo priest can make you immortal…" She said, smiling.

"Not this shit again." Gojyo said, sighing. The woman laughed.

"Lets play a little game shall we?" She started to levitate, taking Hanataro with her. "This world is a labyrinth…Its full of traps and such… And each room is separated off by darkness, and that's only on the first floor. The second floor is far more complex…" She smirked. "If you can't find your way to the third floor, you lose, and it will result in your deaths, considering how many monsters reside in this place. If you figure it out and win…" She chuckled a bit. "Well, no one wins." She startled cackling and disappeared in a flash, taking Hanataro with her.

"Well..I guess we'll be the first to win." Hakkai said with a smile.

"She never told us what we get if we win! What if she eats Hanataro while we're trying to figure out the stupid game!?" Goku shouted.

"Then we better haul ass, monkey." Gojyo said, walking towards the nearest room.

"Wait! Gojyo, you heard the woman. She said that the labyrinth is full of traps. Watch wear your walking." Hakkai warned.

"Yeah, and there are monsters and stuff!" Goku stated.

"I don't need you to tell me things. Besides, since when are monsters ever a problem?" Gojyo began to walk forward again, and Sanzo wordlessly followed. Hakkai smiled at Goku and then followed himself. Goku sighed.

"Please be alright when we get there, Hanataro."

"Let me go!" Hanataro yelled. The woman smiled at licked Hanataro on the cheek.

"Mmn…I might not be able to wait for those four to get here…You look so tasty…What type are you? Lets see…red hair…red eyes…You must be a Pyro….Perfect. I love my dishes spicy." The woman put her paralyzed body down, leaning her against the wall. The room was bright, and unlike the first floor, the light was golden instead of blue.

"Why? Why does no one win your stupid labyrinth game?" Hanataro asked quietly. She was so worried. Not about herself, but about her new friends. They had done so much for her, and now because of her, they might be killed.

"Because, love…My game is full of the unexpected…And because of the fact that its my world…Just makes it more difficult to survive." An orb of light appeared in her hands, and formed into a crystal ball.

"You..cheat, don't you?" Hanataro demanded. The woman cackled and looked into her crystal ball.

"Oh…Goddess…Please don't let them die…" Hanataro whispered.


End file.
